JJB Blog

Kindle Blast — a quick and easy way to get text from your Mac to your Kindle

13 March 2009 - 2 comments

I’ve made an Automator workflow for easily putting text onto a Kindle.

To Install

1. Download the app: Kindle Blast.app.zip
   
2. Expand it, and put it in Applications
3. Stick it in your Dock

To Use (make sure your Kindle is connected to your computer and the disk is mounted)

1. When you are somewhere where there is text that you want to read on your Kindle (for example, a long web article), highlight the entire body of the text and copy it to the clipboard (as in, regular Command-C)
2. Click on Kindle Blast in your Dock
3. You will be asked for a title. Type in a meaningful title — the file name will be based on this, and the Kindle will use it nicely as the document title — so format and capitalize it in the most human-readable way
4. Press "OK" and Kindle Blast does the rest

FAQ

Q: It’s annoying that I have to type in the title and can’t copy paste it, because I already have the body of the article in the clipboard. Can you fix this?

A: Well… what other workflow do you recommend? I could make it so that the first line of the copied text serves as the title– but there would be too many exceptions. Hmm but maybe I could make that the default title in the field. We’ll see.

Q: That’s a stupid name, are you open to other name suggestions?

A: Yes.

Q: How about a clever vector-art icon that goes along with the current name or new name?

A: Yes

2 Comments